Overwatch Concept Shorts
by Mister Smallville
Summary: Shorts I make in my spare time about Original Characters that I created. I try to make them unique, well designed, and fun to think about without making them too over the top. Each chapter will be different from each other, probably covering different characters each time, with different themes each chapter.
1. Whiteout - The Cloaked Sniper

**Hi there, Mr. Smallville here.**

**This is a collection of shorts based on original characters my brother and I designed during our discussions regarding the game. Each character is an exercise in videogame and character design on our end as much as it is just for fun. We (mostly myself) have always wondered what would happen to Overwatch's lore, meta, and balance had these characters been introduced. While it is quite unlikely that these characters will ever become playable in game, it is still quite possible for me to write about these characters and see how the world reacts to said character.**

**Thank you in advance for giving these shorts a chance, and without further interuptions, let us begin.**

**-000-**

**Hunting Season**

It was almost night and under a crimson horizon a squad of mercenaries clad in white armor scoured the snowy hills and woods for their target. These mercs, armed with advanced weapons and armor, have no discernible identifications aside from a small patch, faded to white in order to match their snowy camouflage stuck on their right shoulders.

A vague silhouette of a bird of prey stood out upon a larger circle which enclosed upon it.

This was TALON.

This TALON squad was on the hunt, not for a wild beast, but for a man. A man who has been in hiding since the fall of Overwatch itself. Fleeing from the Watchpoint in Åland, he has hidden in his homeland of Finland ever since.

The squad, out of their element and a long way from home, trudged further uphill in the thick snow typical of winter times. Their lack of knowledge regarding their surroundings, and lack of information regarding their target has led their hunt on a rather unsatisfying streak.

This hunt was only about to get worse.

Burried under the thick snow were a set of charges, designed after ancient WWII era German landmines and were laced with chemical agents. The lead merc unknowingly triggered one of these mines, causing it to launch into the air and detonate, spreading all of these chemicals around a 3 meter radius.

The TALON squad dove for cover after the detonations, seeking for what little cover they could get. One of the mercs inspected himself and his squadmates and, to his surprise, found that no harm was done.

This was their first mistake.

The TALON operators carried on with their hunt, not suspecting anything had gone wrong and believing that the mine was simply a deterent for animals and lesser minded people. Surely all that smoke and noise was to scare off lost hikers and animals from potential intrusion, right? No way in Hell a real outfit like TALON was going to be scared off by some cheap homemade fircrackers.

Little did they know that the chemicals which had been dispersed by the bomb had done it's intended purpose. At first, it would seem as though the bomb had not done anything significant to the mercs, but looking at the TALON squad using a special pair of goggles set on a certain frequency, they lit up like a Christmas tree.

These goggles were being worn by the squad's very target; the very man they were hunting.

And just like that, the hunters have become the hunted.

A soft crack, if a crack could ever be described as soft, was heard right after a bullet smashed right through the lead merc's faceplate.

"Sniper!" One of the mercs exclaimed.

The TALON operators dove for cover once more as they frantically searched for the sniper that they were hunting. The new leading operator used the zoom function on his visor and scanned the treeline uphill, where the shot had presumably come from. The merc slowly turned from right to left, scrutinizing every single detail he could see. Unable to find anything, he flipped a switch on his helmet to activate his visor's thermal imaging systems. Just as he did so, a light orange glow became visible by a bush he had previously dismissed.

"He's over there!" the merc said as he opened fire on the bush. As he did, he could narrowly see a bit of snow fly off from a mound by the bush, following that a bullet whizzed right past the now leading operator's left ear and smashed right onto the tree behind him. The merc instinctively dove for cover once more as his squad opened fire on the bush too.

Peeking back up, he could see the sniper pull up some kind of canister and pull a pin off of it. Immediately, a blue cloud of smoke obscured the orange glow of the sniper, thus rendering his thermal vision useless.

Grunting out in frustration, the leading merc now got back up and joined the rest of his squad in storming uphill. As the mercenaries moved up hill, the sniper fired again. This time the bullet struck a mercenary in the right kneecap, blasting his leg off. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on one's opinion, whatever chemicals were used to propel the bullet also generated immense heat with it. For better or for worse, the now crippled merc's wound was immediately cauterized.

A bloodcurling scream rang out as the incapacitated merc fell to the ground. Instinctively, one of the other mercenaries rushed in to aid his wounded comrade. This proved fatal as the sniper fired again, this time striking the side of the assisting TALON operator's torso. The bullet blasted clean through the body and exited the other side as it continued to hurtle off.

Three of the mercs were downed, this was not looking good for TALON.

The legless merc was now continuously screaming out in pain as he lay on the ground helpless. Unable to help their fallen comrades, the TALON operators decided to push on against the sniper, with one laying down supressing fire to cover his comrades' assault.

Another shot from the sniper, another merc downed. The sniper had fired his shot clean through the operator's heart, leaving a tennis ball sized hole where it had once been. The TALON operators were dropping down like flies, and at this rate they'd all be dead before they get to 5 meters closer to this bastard.

Unable to see any other option, the leading operator opted for what he considered was the wisest course of action.

"Viper, this is Havok 2. We're pinned down and require air support!"

The gunship pilot replied very quickly.

Perhaps too quickly for his liking.

"Copy that Havok 2, we're coming in low!" the pilot answered.

Fast as the wind, the previously stealthed gunship dropped it's optical camouflage and revealed itself. It opened fire upon the sniper's general location as it swooped low, forcing the sharpshooter to duck and run for cover. Using this opportunity, the mercs pushed on ahead making sure that the sniper was kept on the backfoot.

The sniper had hidden behind a fairly large tree and the TALON squad, with gunship support, moved in to complete the job. As they closed to within 3 meters of the sniper, the pinned down sharpshooter slid out of cover with a strange cylindrical device mounted on the barrel's end of the rifle.

"Rifle grenade!" One of the TALON mercs called out quickly.

The sniper fired the rifle grenade and Havok 2 watched in slow motion as it flew towards his squad. Those directly in it's path were able to quickly dodge the oncoming projectile. But as he threw himself to the side and looked back to where the grenade was going, he realized that the gunship had been flying too low.

The rifle grenade, missing all of the mercs on the ground, struck the gunship on it's left side. Upon detonation, the grenade dispersed a nasty looking cloud of red chemicals which seemed to latch onto whatever it touched. On contact, the chemical began superheating and burning the metals and other components touched by it, turning them white hot.

"Oh hell, what was that? My instruments are going nuts!" The gunship pilot cried out over the radio.

The chemicals now touched upon the gunship's weapons and engines, burning and wrecking them too.

"I'm loosing control... Get clear!"

Heading the pilot's warning, the TALON mercs scattered away from the gunship's potential crashzone. The gunship spun out the air and ran itself right into the ground exactly where the mercs were at a few seconds ago. At the same time, the superheating chemicals set off the engine and weapons.

Havok 2 looked back on the split second between when the gunship was intact, and when it turned into a fiery ball of nightmare. A split second later, he felt the heat and shockwave wash over him, and he felt himself get picked up from the ground and struck something hard with his back. The shock from the impact sent the merc unconcious.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been out. A few seconds? A few hours? Havok 2 couldn't be sure. As he opened his eyes, the sky was dark, compared to the crimson red that painted the sky earlier. Clearly enough time had passed.

He tried to move his body, but all he could feel was pain. He craned his neck and scanned the are around him.

It was a mess.

A sizeable crater was close by with the wreckage of the gunship scattered around it. He could feel immense pain from his back and turning his head back revealed that he had been launched by the shockwave and slammed spine first into a tree. While the armor he wore had taken the brunt of the impact, he was sure his back was fractured badly. He was about to try and get up when a gunshot interrupted his line of thought.

The sniper.

He struggled to push his body and look at his target. Now that he had time to look at his target closer, he saw that he was clad in a white fur cloak, with a leather shoulderpad and an ammo bandolier slung over his chest. His cloak seemed to be slightly singed by the explosion.

Good, he didn't get away from it unscathed then.

He watched the sniper intently from the ground as he walked towards one of teammate's bodies. Only upon further inspection, his teammate was still quite alive. The teammate struggled to crawl away at first, but was stopped by the sniper who slammed his foot down on the teammate's back, causing him shout out in pain. The shouting was silenced by a gunshot as the sniper quickly executed the teammate.

The sniper then turned towards Havok 2, revealing his face... or at least a covered one. He was masked, of course he was. Some kind of respirator was covering the lower half of his face, no doubt to protect himself from whatever chemicals he used on a day to day basis. The upper half of his face was obscured by his goggles, which surely served as more than just eye coverings. On top of all this was a hood made out of the same material as his cloak.

Havok 2 scrambled and fought through the pain as he struggled to pull his pistol out of it's holster. Just as his sidearm was freed, the sniper kicked it out of the merc's hand, sending the gun clattering away.

The merc's breathing started becoming heavy and labored as the sniper drew closer and closer to him. White cloaked figure loomed over the injured TALON operator, and simply shook his head. The sniper proceeded to unsheathe a long and nasty looking knife, then mounted it on the end of his rifle. It was a bayonet.

"Consider this an act of mercy." The white cloaked sniper said as he drove the bayonet right through the merc's stomach.

The merc let out a garbled scream as the pain jolted through his body. Slowly, the pain faded away as his body went numb. Shortly after, Havok 2 was no more.

The sniper was about to leave, but as he did, a static noise came from Havok 2's body.

A deep, gravelly voice greeted the sniper.

"Havok squad, report in! What is your status?"

The sniper picked up the communicator from the corpse and pressed the transmit button. He waited there silently as he gathered the words he thought would be fitting to say.

"Reaper." the sniper called with venom. "You should visit every once in a while, you know? These goons of yours aren't that big of a challenge these days."

"Simö... big words coming from a coward like you." Reaper countered.

The sniper, Simö, just sighed.

"Kind of hypicritical of you, considering that stunt you pulled off in Germany." He said cutting off the call, then smashing the communicator.

Taking a deep breath, Simö slung his rifle onto his back and mover away from the wreck. A snowstorm had began to pick up off in the distance, and was bearing upon the location fast. As Simö left the scene, the storm swallowed up the forest and hills, engulfing the crashsite. In the midst of all that snow, the sniper... Simö, dissapeared.

**Character Abilities and Lore Details**

**Name: **Simö Korhonen

**Aliases: **Tapio, Huntsman, Whiteout

**Current ****Age: **47

**Nationality: **Finnish

**Occupation: **Sniper (formerly), Overwatch Scientist (formerly), Vigilante.

**Affiliation: **Finnish Military (formerly), Overwatch (formerly).

**Role: **Damage

**Health: **200

**Overview: **Using a modified hunting rifle and surplus military equipment, Simö's hunting and scientific knowhow turns him into a hidden, long ranged marksman of death.

**Abilities: **

**Hunting Rifle**: A powerful, long ranged rifle, Simö's weapon is most suitable for longer ranged engagements. The rifle fires a projectile based bullet which drops after a certain distance after firing. The rifle comes with no scope, instead, Simö aims directly down the rifle's sights. The rifle is a single shot, bolt action. A reload animation will play for 3 seconds after every shot.

**Painter Mine: **Simö can deploy a quickly arming mine on any surface. When an enemy triggers this mine, it detonates for 5 damage around a 4 meter radius, revealing anybody affected by the explosion for 15 seconds. It cools down for 18 seconds.

**Cloaking Gas:** Simö activates a gas dispersal device on himself which renders himself invisible to various sensors and other equipment for 30 seconds, but still visible to other heroes in the field (though the red outline that usually highlights enemy heroes will not be on him). While under the effects of cloaking gas, Simö cannot be targeted by auto-targeting attacks (the likes of Torbjörn's and Symmetra's turrets, McCree and Soldier's ultimates, BOB, etc.) and he will not trigger traps (Widowmaker's mine and Junkrat's trap). Simö can fire his weapons without breaking cloak, but taking fire will reveal him as well as walking too close to an enemy. A cooldown of 10 seconds starts after Simö is revealed

**Venom Bayonet: **Simö's bayonet is laced with dangerous fast acting neurotoxins which will deal damage over time. Striking with the bayonet will deal a flat 10 damage, but will poison the enemy for an extra 30 damage over 5 seconds. This replaces the usual melee attack and has a slower recharge of 2.2 seconds.

**Firebomb: **Simö fires a rifle grenade loaded with special chemicals. The grenade detonates in a 6 meter radius, and burns enemies affected by the explosion for 250 damage over 10 seconds. The burning can be mitigated by healing or by activating immunity abilities (Reaper's wraith form, Mei's cryo freeze).

**Backstory:** Simö grew up as a gifted student in a small town north of Helsinki before the Omnic wars started. He had been accepted into a prestigious science institution before the war spilled over from Russia. Realizing he needed to do his part, Simö enlists into the Finnish military to help however he possibly could. During training, his scientific aptitude and skill using a rifle got him fast tracked into sniper school where he learned how to operate behind enemy lines alone and without support. After graduation, he was shipped to the front lines where he and other snipers like him wreaked havoc upon the Omnic forces in the forrested mountains of Finland. Simö's outstanding performance earned him an invitation into Overwatch, where he would develop a competitive, though less than friendly, rivalry between himself and Torbjörn Lindholm.

After the Omnic Wars ended, Simö was assigned to several counter-terror and counter-insurgent operations. However, now that he was no longer fighting Omnics, people eventually questioned the legality of his methods when dealing with threats. This eventually got him removed from the active duty roster and relegated to research in Watchpoint Åland, where he would dilligently work until Overwatch was disbanded.

**Author's****/Designer's Notes****:** This originally started as a challenge from a friend of mine to create a character after a lengthy session of discussing Blizzard's character design choices. Originally, I designed the character to become a sort of "Anti-Tanker" with a massive damage output, but a slow rate of fire. First, I envisioned Simö almost like a musket user. He would have a very lengthy reload after every shot, but after some discussion with my brother, realized that it would leave him almost useless in CQC environments.

A one-trick hero was not my goal.

So I did some revising with the help of my brother, and when he went back to his studies (the concepts were laid down a year ago or so) I decided to work on the ideas some more. So I plugged my earphones on and blasted music for an hour straight as I worked. It wouldn't be until Sabaton's White Death song came up during some of my ruminations that I realizes just how to further expand his kit. At the time he was designed to be more of a WWI era trench fighter. In this incarnation his bayonet and bolt action weapon was already in place, but his extra abilities was an area denial gas grenade, and he had a bayonet charge ability (which would have been similar to Reinhardt's charge, though without the pinning). With the song stuck in my head, I went about reworking how he worked and this is the end result.

Anyways, that's all for this entry. This is a side project I work on whenever I catch writer's block on my other projects, so don't expect me to update very often.

As always, tell me what you think about what I did here. Regardless if you loved it or hated it, I'd like to know what you think. Again, thank you very much for reading through the entire thing. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Good luck, and Godspeed.


	2. Strider - Death From Above

**Bird of Prey**

It was late at night in the city of Oasis. Everyone was beginning to call it a day and rest for the night. Cars are coming in a lower and lower frequency, each moving slower too. One such car was not, however. A black SUV, moving swiftly in a convoy made up of other identical SUVs, weaved through traffic quickly and skillfully. This convoy, of course, was being watched from above.

Up in the sky, one bird has yet to return to his nest. Waiting for the right moment, he stalks his prey quietly from the inky black sky.

"Target's in sight, you better have my payment ready." The flying man said.

_"Get the job done, then we'll discuss payment."_ A gravelly voice replied to him via radio.

The man nodded in reply, though his employer couldn't see him do it. He dove in towards the target in blistering speed, deploying the pulse autocannon on his right arm and strafed the convoy. To his disappointment, the SUVs were armored.

"Of course they are." He cursed at himself.

Using the speed he retained from the dive, he climbed back up and turned around for another attack run. This time, he deploys the talons on the suit's legs and uses the momentum he gathered in the dive to smash into the the rear car and rip it's roof off.

Scanning the car's passengers quickly, he determined that the target wasn't in this car.

"Negative target on the rear car."

He hosed down the occupants with his autocannon before they could pull out their own guns and fire at him. With the driver dead, the SUV swerved out of control and ran into a building. Before he could climb back up, the road ran right into a tunnel, trapping the flying man and the convoy in a level playing field until the tunnel ends.

Good and bad for both of them.

The guards in the 2nd SUV rolled down their windows and started firing at him. The flying man dodged and weaved around the guard's bullets, at the same time he scanned the 2nd SUV.

"Negative on the 2nd car."

When the guards had to stop shooting at him to reload, he shoved the car out of track, throwing it into oncoming traffic. A massive explosion erupted as the SUV crashed head on to a multi ton cargo truck, destroying both of them.

"Last one it is." He said.

Just as he was about to catch up with the last car, the road opened up from the tunnel, revealing several armored flying figures now tailing him. A concussive missile knocked him out of course, away from the last SUV and forcing him to climb back up to open air. Stopping mid air to hover, the armored figures followed suit, surrounding him with their weapons trained right on him.

"Charles J. Crowe, we've been looking for you for a long time now." The leader of the armored figures said. The madwoman seemed to be carrying a rocket launcher.

"I'm flattered." Crowe sarcastically replied. "To whom do I owe the pleasure?"

"Fareeha Amari, Chief Security Officer of Helix Security International's Middle Eastern Operations." She answered. "Under the authority of the UN Security Council we're putting you under arrest."

"Are you now?" He asked rhetorically. He took a good look at the Security officers surrounding him. Taking a gamble, he decided to pull off a risky move.

"You'll have to catch me first." Crowe quipped as he cut his engines.

The move was unexpected even for the veteran security officers, and Crowe managed to give them the slip. Not willing to let him get away, the officers dived in after him, firing theirs weapons as they went. Reactivating his engines, Crowe pulled up from the dive and went straight back to the road, using the civilian cars as cover. As expected they stopped firing at him from long range in fear of hitting the bystanders. They flew in low and closer to him, so that they had a better chance at hitting him. Scanning the road, Crowe decided that he can use the cars as a weapon against the officers. He fired a burst from his pulse autocannon at one of the civilian cars. It damaged the anti-gravity generator that let it hover and caused it to swerve and run into the bridge's railing. With the car teetering at the edge, two of the security officers flew off to try and stop the car from falling.

"Two down, five to go." Crowe reminded himself.

Once more into the fray, Crowe was forced to multitask as he avoided attacks from the officers and tried to track down the last SUV. He spotted it and weaved his way through traffic and chased the car. The SUV was about to enter another tunnel and Crowe was about to follow suit, but another concussive missile forced him to break the chase. Instead, he quickly tagged the SUV on his HUD and turned to face his pursuers. He fired a burst from his autocannon to harass the 5 officers from a distance. He didn't expect to hit any target at this distance, but it was enough to keep the enemy on their toes.

Crowe zipped towards the Oasis skyline, where the massive towers and skyscrapers afforded plenty of cover as well as maneuvering room for his flight suit. Touching down on the roof of one of the buildings, he kicked down the roof access door in and rushed inside. Three of the Helix officers landed on the roof and followed suit.

It was difficult to hide his bulky suit and massive wings in a corporate office space like the building they were in now, even if it was devoid of people. Fortunately, Crowe managed to do it by folding his large wings and deactivating his loud engines to remain hidden. He waited in one of the cubicles for the three officers to enter the floor. As soon as the three exited the stairwell, they were grouped up close enough for him to take down in quick succession. Crowe aimed carefully for the one of the Helix officer's engines and fired a shot. The pulse round hit the officer right in the fuel tank and detonated it, catching him and his colleagues in the blast

The explosion alerted the two remaining Helix officers who were on the lookout from outside the building. The two of them fired into the building Crowe was in, who sprinted as fast as he could away from the danger. Machine gun rounds and rockets smashed left and right in the office as the Helix Officers did their damnedest to take down the merc. Crowe jumped out the building and reactivated his flight suit. The merc zoomed as fast as he could, generating as much speed and momentum as he physically possible whilst the two officers were reloading their weapons. Extending his talons, Crowe struck the machine gun wielding officer down by tearing apart his engines. He plummeted down without his flight capabilities, but deployed his emergency parachute and avoided certain death.

This left the Chief Security officer to deal with the rogue merc.

She finished reloading her rocket launcher and charged right after him. Crowe dived down towards the cliff side that the city was built on, dodging and avoiding the officer's rockets as he sped by the various cliffside houses Frustrated at consistently missing her target, Fareeha activated the hover function of her suit and began firing a massive barrage of rockets from every launcher that was on her suit. Crowe looked behind him to see the terrifying sight that is a hundred or so rockets coming right after him. He dodged and avoided the rockets as much as he possibly could, but the shockwaves and the shrapnel that were washing over the suit began taking it's toll. Crowe couldn't take much more of it and did something under normal circumstances wouldn't have done. These were desperate times though, and he'd honestly rather die than get caught by Helix.

He spotted a party in one of the cliff-side houses, and flew up towards it. With his suit trailing smoke and spewing sparks every so often, Crowe landed on the porch where the party was being hosted to the utter terror and horror of the guests. Spotting a little girl, he grabbed her by her jacket's and took off once more.

"I'm gonna have to borrow her." He told her parents.

Her parents protested, screamed, and tried to fight him, but as expected they could do nothing to stop the flying merc from rocketing away with the child. Crowe was gambling his life with this kid as collateral. If it didn't pay off both of them would probably be dead by the end of this ordeal. The little girl screamed and cried as she was carried higher and higher from solid ground. After they were high enough, Crowe slowed himself to a hover and let the last Helix officer catch up to him. Fareeha stopped in front of him, rocket launcher aimed directly at the merc.

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me." She hissed out.

"That's not happening, buddy. I have all the cards here. You can't touch me without something horrible happening to little princess here." He taunted.

"I've read your profile, Crowe. You would never kill a child." She countered.

"I know I won't... but would you?" He said.

With that the merc let go of the girl, who then felt gravity start to take over as she fell down to her doom. Crowe used Fareeha's confusion and hesitance to immediately rocket away.

Fareeha was outraged at this. She was THIS close to apprehending him... but she couldn't let the kid die either. She let out a frustrated yell as she dived in after the girl.

Crowe's gamble paid off.

He made a sharp turn and dived towards the SUV he marked whilst he was being chased. Not wanting to waste any more time than he already did, he fired his weapon of last resort: a guided bunker busting missile. The merc launched the missile from it's mount on left his arm and watched as it caught up to the car, before it turned down and punched right through the car's armored hood. The missile destroyed it's engine, causing it to drop on the ground and grind to a halt, powerless. Crowe landed down close to the car's crash and approached it. One of the passenger door was kicked off from the inside. A guard and a man with a briefcase handcuffed to his hand tumbled out of the wreck.

That briefcase was his target.

The merc fired a shot from his autocannon at the guard's left leg, crippling him. The man with the briefcase stumbled back and tried to crawl away, but a burst of shots to the ground near him stopped the man from trying to escape. Crowe grabbed him by the shoulder and turned the delegate to face him. Once they were face to face, Crowe shoved his autocannon's barrel on his face.

"The drive, or your life." Crowe threatened.

He quickly unlocked the handcuffs and dropped the briefcase.

"Good call."

Crowe watched the man unlock the briefcase with a combination of passwords and biometric locks. The metal briefcase unsealed and opened up with a mechanical hiss, revealing a UN data drive in it. Crowe took the drive and secured it to his belt. A quick glance back saw a flying silhouette and two others in the distance begin to close in on him. The Helix officers must be back on his trail. Deciding that he wasn't going to take anymore unwanted risks, Crowe reactivated his suit and rocketed away from the crash site with his quarry at full speed.

Crowe was long gone by the time the Helix officers got to the SUV wreck.

Hours later, somewhere above the Mediterranean Sea, a TALON dropship disabled it's optical cloak and opened it's side doors. Crowe approached the dropship as it opened it's doors and entered the ship even before the hatch had fully unfolded. He entered the craft and found that it was bathed in a dim red light.

"Your drive, just like you wanted." The merc announced.

"This was supposed to be a _clean_ op." A gravelly voice answered.

A hooded figure, one who Crowe identified as Reaper, approached him.

"And Helix wasn't supposed to be there." He hissed back. "You're lucky that they didn't even catch me, let alone that I got the drive!"

"Hrrrr... Fine." Reaper finally said.

He motioned to one of the TALON operators near him to hand over the briefcase. This one was a female, dressed in a strange suit of neon purple.

Crowe took the heavy briefcase from the TALON operator, then inspected it's contents.

"6 kilograms of gold, all unmarked, just as we agreed." Reaper told him.

Crowe closed the briefcase and secured it to his flightsuit.

"Always a pleasure working with you." He said as he walked towards the dropship door. "I'm looking forward to doing more business in the future."

With that Crowe opened the hatch and jumped off the TALON dropship. Once the the ship had sealed itself and recloaked, Sombra finally spoke up

"You really think leaving him alive is a good idea?"

"He still has his uses." Reaper answered coldly. "When the time comes, I'll kill him myself."

**-000-**

**Character** **abilities and lore details:**

**Name: **Charles Joseph Crowe

**Aliases: **Charlie, CJ, Strider, The Flying Man

**Current ****Age: **34

**Nationality: **American

**Occupation: **USAF Pilot (formerly), Overwatch Test Pilot (formerly), Aircraft Technician (part time), Mercenary

**Affiliation: **US Military (formerly), Overwatch (formerly). Willie & Charlie's Aeroworks

**Role: **Damage

**Overview: **With his custom made flight suit, Crowe is able to maneuver his way into favorable attack positions, be it in the air above or on solid ground.

**Abilities: **

**Pulse Autocannon: **A powerful, rapid fire weapon, Crowe's Pulse Autocannon delivers a fusilade of speedy projectiles in rapid succession. The weapon delivers 12 damage per regular hit and 22 damage on headshots. The weapon fires at a respectable 3 shots per second and the player must lead the shots at longer ranges due to it not being a hitscan weapon. The Pulse Autocannon overheats after 10 seconds of sustained fire on the ground and 20 seconds of sustained fire while in the air. The weapon cools down for 4 seconds after overheating.

**Hardlight-****Wings: **Deployable wings are attached to Crowe's back, allowing him to glide in the air and perform maneuvers. Crowe can remain in flight indefinitely by carefully controlling his speed and altitude. He can generate more speed by diving down and generating speed through a dive, or by activating his Thruster Jet ability mid flight. When at speed, Crowe may regain some altitude. The wing has a separate health pool of 200, and may take damage if hit by an attack. If destroyed, Crowe will not be able to take flight until the wings recover 50 health points.

**Thruster Jets****: **In addition to wings, Crowe's flight suit comes attached with powerful thrusters. He is able to launch himself into the air and glide afterwards in order to remain in air. The boost cools down after 10 seconds and will only propel him forwards if used while gliding. This can generate speed during gliding, allowing Crowe to gain altitude. If activated during a glide, the Thrusters will burn for 3 seconds, generating speed for as long as it was active.

**Talon ****Strike: **When in the air, Crowe may dive down at his foes using his razor sharp metal talons mounted on his flightsuit's boots. He uses the speed generated in the dive to increase damage. This attack may deal from 10 damage when done at point blank range, up to 250 damage when fully charged. Upon hit, Crowe will enter a 1 second recovery animation before being able to do anything else. If the enemy that Crowe attacks is not killed upon impact, they become stunned for two seconds.

**Bunker Buster**** Missile: **Crowe's ultimate ability is his Bunker Buster Missile. This missile is a smart-homing device and can be locked on to Crowe's target of choice. When launched, the missile will fly and avoid incoming obstacles like walls and other map objects. The missile can also fly through player shields like Reinhardt, Sigma, or Orisa's. If the missile can reach it's target, it hits its target dealing 400 damage, ignoring shields and armor. Any enemy in a 2 meter radius of the blast zone will receive 70 damage and be knocked away. The missile has 100 health can be destroyed before it detonates, not unlike Junkrat's Rip-tire.

**Backstory: **Charles Joseph Crowe and his older brother, William Francis Crowe, were born in the midst of the Omnic Wars. The two were the sons of a farmer couple in the Midwest who was forced to seek refuge in one of the major cities as Omnic forces from south of the border began their blitzkrieg across the United States. The Crowe brothers and their family were only able to reach safety with the help of a USAF airstrike which destroyed the bulk of the Omnic forces encroaching upon their little hometown. Living and growing up in one of the many refugee camps across America, Charlie heard non-stop about the heroic exploits of Jack Morrison and Overwatch. Inspired by Commander Morrison's humble beginnings, Charlie dreamed of becoming a USAF pilot and a hero himself. Even though the war had ended, he still became a test pilot in Overwatch. During this time, he became disillusioned by the bureaucracy which was prevalent in the organization. This all came to a head in the fall of Overwatch, when all the corruption in the organization was made public.

After the fall, he joined his older brother in his childhood home, which had been converted into a small airstrip and workshop for small aircraft. Charlie continued to work on an experimental flying suit which he took from Watchpoint El Paso before it was shut down. Still seeking for the glory which was denied to him when he was in Overwatch, he eventually took to the skies once more with the now functioning flightsuit as a mercenary. His exploits as a gun-for-hire eventually caught the attention of TALON, who hired him on a number of times for operations which they could not complete using their own resources.

**A/N: **This character was an idea which came about after playing Ace Combat 7 for the first time. I envisioned a character who could become something like the A-10 Warthog, but as an Overwatch character. When working with this character, I took special inspiration from the gliding mechanics from the Arkham series of games. If my explanations were insufficient, then I hope that would help clear things up better. In regards to his weapon, I originally wanted it to be more like the A-10's 30mm Gatling Cannon, but changed my mind when I considered how similar his weapon would be to both Bastion and Orisa. I decided to take inspiration from a different aircraft for his weapon, namely the Junkers 87 Kanonenvogel and the Henschel 129. Both of these were World War 2 ground attack aircraft which sported heavy cannons to destroy tanks. With this in mind, I envisioned Crowe's autocannon as something like Orisa's primary weapon with a lower rate of fire, faster projectile speed, and much more damage.

The Talon Strike ability is almost a direct rip off of the gliding kick ability from the Arkham series. I added in the dive charging and the pinning to make the ability a little bit more skill heavy. If this ability were to exist, I'd imagine it would be a cross between the gliding kick with Reinhardt's charge ability.

As time passed by and with the release of Sigma into the game, the Bunker Meta became something of a nuisance for me. While I do personally enjoy playing tank characters in Overwatch, I found the prolific use of Sigma, Orisa, and Reinhardt to be quite... unstimulating. This prompted me to think of a weapon to circumvent this somehow. What I came up with was the Bunker Buster, which came to me after a long session of playing 'Worms Ultimate Mayhem' with my brother. In that game, there existed homing missiles which could seek out its targets whilst avoiding obstacles in its way. This weapon didn't deal a lot of splash damage but was perfect for picking out particularly troublesome Worms from a safe position. The biggest dilemma I got when trying to figure out how to translate this into Overwatch was the question of how much damage it would deal. At first I considered making this into something like an assassination weapon, where the missile would kill only one target upon impact. After talking to my brother about this, he suggested to turn the missile into something like Tracer's bomb, but flying and homing. We were iffy on whether the splash damage should deal 70 or 100 damage, but I settled for the lower end as I believed that it was better to have a character be under-powered upon launch than over-powered.

Honestly, I think this character would be radically different from all the others and I'm not even sure how it would all play out. I may have designed Crowe to be a something of a 'blockade-buster' kind of character, but not even I can figure out all the possibilities that would come from his flight abilities. Pharah's flight is something more of an extended jump, not unlike the jetpacks from Star Wars Battlefront 2, while it still operates in the same vertical space, does not have the same kind of sustained vertical movement that Crowe could have if used properly. The only barrier to this character's flight would be the maps being played and the skybox limit. I'd imagine he'd have trouble flying around in enclosed spaces like Horizon, the second half of Hanamura, the MEKA base in Busan, or the inner city of Junkertown.

Anyways, that's all for now. I've got a lot of ideas for this cooking, but I'd rather have them better fleshed out before uploading it here.

As always, tell me what you think about what I did here. Regardless if you loved it or hated it, I'd like to know what you think. Again, thank you very much for reading through the entire thing.

Good luck and Godspeed to you, my friends.


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